Article 3—Academic Policies and Regulations

Part 5. Registration Charges

§ 3-503 Tuition Waivers

(a) Academic Employees

Tuition is waived for all faculty and academic professional employees of the University on appointment for at least 25 percent of full-time service, with an appointment that requires service for not less than three-fourths of a term. This waiver also applies to staff members of certain specifically identified related agencies, whose positions are considered equivalent to academic positions of the University. (See § 3-502.)

(b) Graduate Assistants

Most graduate teaching and research assistants of the University on appointment for at least 25 percent but not more than 67 percent of full-time service, and whose appointments require service for not less than three-fourths of the term, will receive a full-tuition waiver.

However, depending on the student’s curriculum, some graduate assistants will receive only a base-rate tuition waiver (base rate is defined as the in-state graduate tuition rate, within the four tuition ranges, absent any differential).

Units that enroll students who qualify only for base-rate tuition waivers must provide written notification of the policy in advance, so that the students will know their status upon admission.

Those on appointment for 68 percent or more of full-time service pay tuition and are eligible for waiver of the service fee only. Caution: Assistantship appointments are cumulative. For example, if a person holds two appointments, a 25 percent and a 50 percent assistantship appointment, he or she is ineligible for a tuition waiver.

(1) Students holding either academic or graduate assistant appointments to the close of the final term of an academic year either as employees or fellows, and for whom tuition and/or the service fee have been provided through waiver, are entitled to a waiver of the same kind for the summer sessions immediately following, provided they hold no appointments during that summer session.

(2) Students holding summer session appointments as fellows or as employees are subject to the tuition and fee waivers as stated above.

(3) Students may not be eligible for more than one waiver at a time.

(c) Staff Employees

(1) Staff employees of the University, of other institutions and agencies under the University Civil Service System, and of certain specifically identified related agencies in status appointments or in appointments designed to qualify for status in an established class (e.g., trainee, intern, etc.) for at least 50 percent of full-time service may be granted waiver of tuition in any regular courses for not more than eleven credit hours in a semester if on a full-time appointment (Range II), or five credit hours if on a 50 percent to 99 percent time appointment (Range III), provided that they (1) are eligible for admission, (2) are not students defined under Civil Service Rule 250.70 (f), and (3) have enrollment approval of their employing department.

(2) If an employee’s total registration is in a higher range than authorized above, the employee must pay the difference between the authorized range and the higher range.

(3) Staff employees in a status, learner, trainee, apprentice, or provisional appointment may enroll without payment of tuition and service fee in regular courses directly related to the University employment not to exceed ten credit hours per semester provided that they have made application and received prior approval for enrollment as required by procedures issued by the director of nonacademic personnel and set forth in Policy and Rules—Staff.

(d) Child of Eligible Employee

(1) Illinois Public Act 87-0793 (SB 1353) provides, if certain eligibility criteria are met, a 50 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate education for children of University employees enrolled at an Illinois state institution of higher education.

(2) The Board of Trustees has established the following regulations:

(A) The waiver can be used only for undergraduate education.

(B) The waiver shall cover 50 percent of tuition, not fees.

(C) The waiver may be used for four years (including summers), as long as satisfactory academic progress is maintained.

(D) The parent must be a regular employee of the University of Illinois (or other Illinois state university) with at least seven years of service on the first day of instruction of the term for which the waiver is requested, and be one whose appointment qualifies for employer-provided insurance benefits. Excluded as “parent” are annuitants; employees of University-related organizations (i.e., Foundation and Alumni Association); Civil Service temporary and extra help; graduate and undergraduate assistants; and academic hourly and student employees.

(E) The child must be under twenty-five years of age and the child of the eligible employee by blood or adoption; or the legal child of the employee’s current spouse; or the legal ward of the eligible employee.

(F) The child must qualify for admission to a degree program under the same requirements, standards, and policies applicable to general applications.

(G) To apply for the waiver, the employee or child must obtain an eligibility form available at one of the following offices:

• Office of Student Financial Aid, Student Services Arcade Building, 620 East John Street, Champaign
• Benefits Center, Fourth Floor, 807 South Wright Street, Champaign
• Staff Human Resources, 52 East Gregory Drive, Champaign

(e) Other Categories of Students

Tuition is waived for:

(1) Holders of tuition waiver scholarships.

(2) Holders of graduate tuition and service fee waivers awarded by the Graduate College.

(3) University of Illinois faculty, academic professional, and staff retirees.

(4) Holders of grants or contracts from outside sponsors that provide payments to cover the total cost of instruction.

(5) Cooperating teachers and administrators who receive an assignment of practice teachers, who receive assignment of students meeting the clinical experience requirement in teacher education curricula, or who cooperate in research projects related to teacher education: one semester, quarter, or summer term for each semester, quarter, or equivalent service rendered within two consecutive semesters. The waiver shall apply to the semester, quarter, or summer term of registration, as designated by the student, that is concurrent with, or following, the term of service, but must be applied no later than one calendar year from the end of the term of service. Concurrent registration on more than one campus of the University or in University extramural courses constitutes one semester, quarter, or session of eligibility for waiver.

(A) A similar waiver is authorized for cooperating librarians, school-nurse teachers, social welfare field supervisors, recreation field supervisors, health education field supervisors, speech pathology supervisors, developmental child care field supervisors, educational psychology supervisors, continuing education supervisors, industrial relations field supervisors, and physicians who participate without salary in the instructional program of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign.

(B) Acceptance of more than one assignment from any of the above listed offices during any one term will generate only one waiver.

(6) Illinois Teacher of the Year recipients.

(7) Eligible Illinois senior citizens. (Persons desiring information and/or an application for this waiver should contact the Office of Student Financial Aid, Student Services Arcade Building, 620 East John Street, Champaign; (217) 333-0100.)